No, you weren’t.
Everything you whine about in culture is a direct correlation to religion playing a lesser role. Every post outside flashlights is you longing for a world set up by Judeo Christian white guys for their benefit. Only an idiot wouldn’t see that and be wishing for a return to it, even if they didn’t believe it.
Every thread is nostalgia for an era long gone when the vast majority of households were religious.
Even Trump is a symbol of that right down to his slogan. MAGA-again, or in other words, when white Christians ran the country.
I’m a white middle aged guy, so it worked for me, and I miss it, but it’s dead and smart people realize when something isn’t coming back and adapt.
It’s also amazing that the Biden stole the election guy, which is pure fairy tale without a shred of proof, is making threads saying prove it to me.
You can’t be a real person. No one is this clownish and contradictory.
Ten most religious countries
140 Mauritania 98% 2%
141 Sri Lanka 99% 1%
142 Malawi 99% 1%
143 Indonesia 99% 1%
144 Yemen 99% 1%
145 Niger 100% 0%
146 Ethiopia 100% 0%
147 Somalia[a] 100% 0%
148 Bangladesh 100% 0%
149 Oman 100% 0%
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Import...ion_by_country
Ten least religious countries (China not on list probably because they are not allowed to participate in such polls)
1 Estonia 14% 86%
2 Sweden 15% 85%
3 Denmark 19% 81%
4 Czech Republic[a] 21% 75%
5 Norway[a] 22% 78%
6 Japan 24% 75%
7 Hong Kong 24% 74%
8 United Kingdom 27% 73%
9 Finland[a] 28% 70%
10 Vietnam 30% 69%
Also isreal the ultimate jew nation is only 50%
I can also say confidently that Trump's "shit hole countries" were highly religious and the countries he wanted to take more people from (Adamantium land) were heathens
Like everything in life, something positive can be turned negative when abused. There are definitely unhealthy applications of religion, both on a small and large scale. Islamic fundamentalism is a good example.
Basically any religion where "non-believers" are persecuted or harmed is a bad thing. That sort of religious practice is clearly a net negative for society.
However, modern Christianity is not violent, nor are non-believers persecuted. Even your complaints about it (abstinence-only education, abuse of children by priests) occurs on a very small scale. Modern Christianity (and Judaism, for that matter) brings more positive to society than negative. Honestly, the worst that can be said about modern Christianity on a large scale is intolerance for homosexuals, but even that has largely waned as western society has come to accept homosexuality.
It might sound like a strange comparison, but saying religion is bad is like saying opioids are bad. Opioids are routinely abused in the US and ruin/take many lives. However, when used properly, opioids are very helpful (and have been a positive for me personally). The proper solution would NOT be to outlaw opioids, but rather to focus upon curbing abuse. Religion is similar. Just because it has problems doesn't mean that we should seek to get rid of it. As I said before, you won't like what replaces it.
Religion made “some people did something”...
If anything, it's a massive negative that can occasionally be used positively. While there are definitely benefits to community and prosocial activity, this can be accomplished without the humiliation of pledging your life to a fucking myth. It makes sense that it was able to exist in the absence of science.
You narrowed in on Christianity and Judaism; the former has been peaceful for awhile, but historically is the worst by far.
Other organized religions have not been too kind to your tribe over the millennia.
It's estimated that 6-7% of Catholic priests are pedophiles, a horrifying figure given the size.
Abstinence only states have the highest rates of teen pregnancy and children out of wedlock.
Women, minorities and every other disenfranchised population suffer.
The difference between opioids and religion is opioids can work for some. Praying to a sky wizard doesn't and the consequences are far greater.
It's incredibly damaging to child development to have the fear of an omnipotent god watching one's every move, with eternal damnation being the cost.
Imagine what American society would be like if we all weren't brainwashed as children?
Religion developed as a grift to get believers to fork over money, or else burn. It still only divides. This fraud persists.
I never suggested 'getting rid of it' but society would immensely benefit if our laws weren't shaped by an assortment of fables and people embraced science over sky wizards.
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Sloppy Joe is killing it hard core. Epic!!
Last edited by desertrunner; 01-25-2021 at 06:19 PM.
I disagree with a lot of the above. The "abstinence only" states have high rates of teen pregnancy and out-of-wedlock children because these tend to be states with a lot of small towns, and the lack of anything to do leads to more teen sex (and sadly, more drug abuse). That's not a reflection upon religion. The abstinence-based education has largely lost influence in recent decades, given society's general approval of premarital sex. This dates back to the 1970s. You just don't have many people these who are getting pregnant due to lack of education about birth control options. It's just irresponsible behavior, which is something which will always be a trait of teenagers.
Christians and Jews do not oppress "women and minorities". Again, this is very old school thinking, and hasn't applied for many years.
Additionally, looking back into non-modern history is inconsequential at this point. We're talking about the best path going forward, not damage Christianity caused in the distant past. Modern Christianity and Judaism does not endorse violence or discrimination, with the exception of some Christian communities still shunning homosexuality, but that is on the decline as well.
You said, "It's incredibly damaging to child development to have the fear of an omnipotent god watching one's every move, with eternal damnation being the cost." Again, I disagree. If fear of eternal damnation keeps you from lying, stealing, cheating, murdering, or committing adultery, then that's a positive thing. The only potentially harmful fear of damnation can be hesitance to engage in homosexual relations, but as I said, the stigma of that is on the decline. This also only affects a relatively small percentage of the population, as most people are either heterosexual or bisexual, and can easily be happy with a heterosexual lifestyle. I do hope that Christianity continues on the path of being more welcoming to homosexuals, and accepts that most were indeed born that way, and there's usually no way to pray the gay away. Aside from orthodox, the Jewish religion is already relatively welcoming to gays. For example, the conservative temple where I got Bar Mizvah'd prints notices of gay marriage of members of the congregation, and has since it was legal.
I don't deny that religion has its downsides and causes some harm. I just feel that generally nonviolent religions do more good than harm, and that cases of abuse can be found in any aspect of society. Look at poker. Plenty of (true) horror stories of how poker ruins lives, but nobody here feels that poker's existence is a bad thing.
I feel it's a simplistic view to just state, "Religion is bad, the less we have, the better", because it's a complicated issue, and then there's also the issue of what replaces it.
States with abstinence-only education correlate higher with teen pregnancy. Nobody argues this.
'Having nothing to do' is not an argument for more unsafe fucking. Teens fucking is lower across the board (due to a confluence of variables) but they get knocked up in the retarded states at a much higher clip.
While I've actually shifted my feelings on abortion toward a more pro-life perspective since having a child, I still think women should be able to access them in the early stages of pregnancy. I definitely don't think there should be barriers to access contraception. If women want to be sky wizard priests, they should be able to. Christians in Africa still practice genital mutilation on girls. Purity balls reinforce backward notions of morality. Higher rates of domestic abuse, etc. I don't know what the Jew book says but take a look at the bible for reference.
You think it's a positive thing to live your life in accordance with a lie? That's an incredibly depressing sentiment. People can be taught morality without the threat of a supernatural megalomaniac who purports to love you banishing your soul to eternal damnation.
PokerFraudAlert...will never censor your claims, even if they're against one of our sponsors. In addition to providing you an open forum report fraud within the poker community, we will also analyze your claims with a clear head an unbiased point of view. And, of course, the accused will always have the floor to defend themselves.-Dan Druff
Religion ain’t bad for you as long as you don’t take it too seriously. It’s the fanatics who give it a bad name. If I had to attend church regularly, 100% it would be a black Baptist one:
I just cant hold back, so I want to once again address a point I made a while back in a different thread...
The more posts that I see from Desertrunner, the more I increasingly become convinced that this is really a dupe account - and if that is true, it would be most probable that it was from DesertDruff. Edit: excuse me, DanDruff.
Yes, perhaps I just have my tinfoil hat on here, but I see obvious (at least to me) but subtle signs.
In a real world, I'd love to hear how a genuine forensic analyst would chime in on something like this (along with a few other suspect dupes) and give his technical analysis. I bet it would be interesting.
If I'm walking down a dark alley at 2am, and a guy is considering mugging me, but decides not to do it because he's afraid God is watching him and he'll go to hell for it, then his faith has done society a favor. Whether or not you believe in his God is irrelevant. His religion has led to better behavior toward his fellow man. The reason for this behavior doesn't matter.
You can teach your children the morality you want. If that is absent of religion, that's fine. However, if others want to bring their family up with a religious upbringing in order to help instill morality in them, it's also fine, provided it doesn't become fanaticism.
You're stretching now if you have to bring up "Christians in Africa". There's tons of fucked up stuff in Africa, regardless of religion or lack thereof.
The number of Christians who want to deny contraception to people is fairly low. You hear about them more because they're controversial, and an easy target. Most Christians live normal lives not dominated by religious craziness or super-antiquated values.
I think you are misunderstanding the reason for the high early pregnancy rate in small towns. It's not because of abstinence education or opposition to contraception. Young people there often see little opportunity and little future, so they do have sex earlier, and are less careful because they don't see a pregnancy as the end of the world. If you're a girl with plans to go to college and start a professional career, it's a disaster to get pregnant at 18. If your plans are to work at Walmart for the rest of your life, then a baby at 18 starts to look the same as a baby at 25. Thus, there's a higher level of caution exercised by kids in the city and suburbs. Also, abortions in the city and suburbs happen more frequently for the same reason. Marriages also happen at a much younger age in small towns, for similar reasons.
I used to tell a joke about small-town Nevada back when I lived in Vegas:
"What do you call a girl in Fallon who is 21 and has no children?"
"An old maid."
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